Labrador: Dems to blame if plan fails

Rep. Raul Labrador says Republicans aren’t being obstructionists on immigration reform and that, in fact, Democrats — including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — should get the blame for the stalemate brewing on the Hill.

The Idaho Republican disputed characterizations of Republicans holding up reform when MSNBC’s Alex Wagner asked him Wednesday about the charge being leveled by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

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“Chuck Schumer said yesterday, for example, that any bill without a pathway to citizenship is dead in the Senate. So if Chuck Schumer’s not going to accept anything unless he gets 100 percent of what he wants, then he’s the one who’s killing immigration reform, he’s the one who’s seeing that 80 percent is not enough,” Labrador said.

Wagner brought up that Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), as well as the Chamber of Commerce, supported the Senate bill, asking, “And you’re going to blame Democrats?”

“Yeah, if Chuck Schumer does not accept the solution from the House, if he says that 80 percent is not good enough for him because he wants 100 percent, then it is his fault,” Labrador said, adding that the House has been working on immigration reform. “If that is not good enough for Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Party, that means that they really don’t want a solution, that all they want is the rhetoric to talk about immigration reform.”

Labrador also got into it with panelist Bill Burton, a co-founder of liberal super PAC Priorities USA and a Democratic strategist, who said the Republican Party was standing in the way of a solution to a “massive problem” in the country.

“It’s not my party. It’s your party, actually, that stood in the way of solving it when President [George] Bush wanted to resolve it. So if we want to cast aspersions back and forth, we can do that all day,” Labrador said.

The congressman said the Senate bill has no chance in the House, but the House is working to pass incremental legislation that will provide a solution to immigration reform instead of a comprehensive bill. He did not say it would have a path to citizenship but said a “path to legalization” was likely.